February 10, 2013

In a stroke of genius marine navigation, the USS Guardian, an Avenger class Minesweeper,
took it’s class seriously and rammed into the Southern portion of what used to be part of one of the world’s most beautiful reefs and a World Heritage Site. Of course, there was a short blurb about it on the news, and now a news blackout on the incident. Problem is, the USS Guardian is still stuck, and continues to destroy more coral each day it remain there. So far, it still remains a mystery how this Minesweeper could detect, despite all it’s hi-tech equipment, the depth of the water it is sailing over. Philippine Park Rangers on speedboats attempted to warn the boat, but was instead met by the sounding by the USS Guardian’s crew of General Quarters, putting the ship on red alert as it continued on to park itself on the defenseless reef. Luckily, the coral, did not attack the boat (USS Guardian/Banca). Instead, the US government is trying to resolve the matter of damage to the reef by their SOP, i.e. throwing money at the Philippine government. It is amazing to see how the Yanquis are already giving the PH government a figure to to cover the yet unknown damage, ironic considering the final assessment of damage has yet to be determined by marine biologists from the PH government and the World Heritage Site. It is amazing to see how strong the ESP of the US government is, as they already seem to know the value of the damage they continue to wreak on the reef goes on. Also, a representative from the World Heritage Site was reportedly barred from making his own damage assessment. I guess they can tell that to the Marine(s) Reserve. Well, they better get off their butts and start dismantling their ship, before it destroys the entire reef. As usual, the reef may be held responsible for the incident, as it failed to move as quickly as the USS Guardian ordered it to in order to give them safe passage and the fact that it existed. The only damage to the US Navy is to the ego of the ship’s captain, whose next assignment will probably be to row the USS Enterprise (wishful thinking on our part. We know he will be promoted and awarded a medal for valor in the face of an attack from a World Heritage Site). ArayManila posted a photo taken from above the boat that kills thousands of years-old reefs. Also, we recommend a refresher course to all US Navy boat captains on navigating around reefs, considering that there is a 30 kilometer wide gap of deep water between the North reef and the South reef in Tubbataha, an option the USS Banca could have taken in order to avert this disaster. But that would have been too easy.

See the clearing operations being undertaken by this boat to clear a path in the coral? Damage grows larger by the day.